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METRO VANCOUVER - When their baby girl Aylin was born last December, Susanne Klocke and Amir Khanlou made a promise: Their daughter would grow up trilingual, speaking German, Persian and English.

The idea was a noble one, aimed at preserving the cultures of their own homelands while teaching Aylin to embrace Canadian values.

The Burnaby couple isn’t the first, nor last, to adopt such an approach. Indeed, while 68.4 per cent of the population in Metro Vancouver speaks only English at home, according to data from the 2011 Census released on Wednesday, about 25.4 per cent conversed in a non-official language around the dinner table — primarily Cantonese or Mandarin, Punjabi, or Tagalog, the language of the Philippines.

In total, about 31 per cent, or 712,000 people in the region, spoke these languages or French, or lived in multi-lingual households, according to the census.

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The numbers are similar across Canada, where 200 languages are spoken. Across the country, about two million people speak neither English nor French at home.

But analysts point out that despite the high number of non-official languages being spoken, the data does not signify the demise of English, which continues to be the staple for work, education and business.

Rene Houle, a senior analyst with Statistics Canada, noted that immigration officials favour potential newcomers who can speak one of the two official languages.

“In this society, the reasonable use of English is strong in terms of work and education,” he said. “There’s a lot of pressure to be English.”

But language proficiency requirements for permanent residency vary depending on individual circumstances. Immigrants coming to Canada to work must have a measure of English or French proficiency, with the bar set higher for skilled workers who come in under the points system.

Workers who apply through programs such as the live-in caregiver or Canadian experience classes, both of which can lead to permanent residency, the language requirement is more closely tied with on-the-job needs.

Those who gain permanent residence through other means — either as investors, entrepreneurs, family members, or refugees — do not have to meet language requirements, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. But they must pass an official language proficiency test to gain citizenship.

Language requirements do not apply to temporary residents, such as international students and foreign workers.

Klocke, a nurse, said she believes that she and Khanlou have a duty to teach Aylin several languages. She speaks German to her daughter daily, and translates English books into her native tongue.

“English she will learn anyway,” she said, noting Aylin is exposed to English during library storytimes and singalongs, as well as during conversations between her parents.

“I try to expose her to German as much as possible,” she said. “I want her to be able to communicate with her family, with her grandma and uncle and cousins. Language has a lot to do with identity; language is the soul of the nation.”

Henry Yu, an historian with the University of B.C., agreed, adding that speaking other languages can be a social tool and important for business.

Trading partners from other nations, he said, often see it as a sign of trust or respect when businesspeople can speak at least a smattering of their language.

“The other thing that is going to be crucial is there’s going to be more bilingual Chinese and English speakers in China than all the English speakers (in Canada) combined,” Yu said. “The Chinese are learning English because they think it’s a useful tool.”

He argues that most immigrants, especially from China and India, are already bilingual when they arrive in Canada. But it’s often harder for their children to retain the mother tongue.

Even Yu, who grew up speaking Cantonese, said he doesn’t have the skills to pass on to his children, who would have to go abroad to become immersed in the language.

He laments the fact there aren’t many language schools that help immigrant children foster reading and writing skills in their parents’ mother tongues throughout high school and beyond.

“It’s very difficult to keep our children multilingual,” he said.

Houle estimates there is only about a 10-per-cent language retention rate by the third generation.

Yu blames this on a historical trend, in which Canadians considered English the “superior” language. He noted this is still fostered around schoolyards, where teachers encourage children to speak English without an accent, and often don’t allow chatter in other languages.

“This is a global world,” Yu said. “The norm is to speak multiple languages, including English. ... We have to stop clinging to that vestige that one language is good enough.”

Khanlou acknowledges that Farsi isn’t likely going help further Aylin’s future, and Chinese or Spanish would probably be more helpful, but said it will help solidify her cultural ties.

He concedes that he hasn’t been as dedicated in teaching his 10-month-old daughter to speak Farsi, but he and Klocke often invite his Persian friends for parties so she is exposed to the language.

“Our thought was we would plan to speak with our mother languages, each of us, so she would speak three languages,” said Khanlou, who moved to Canada from Iran eight years ago. “It’s not quite balanced; probably I’ve been a bit lazy. Susanne has been speaking German to her for the last four or five months, so probably her ears are getting German words and sounds and vowels.”

Khanlou hopes Aylin’s young cousins, who live nearby, will help her to learn Persian, but noted that while those children speak fluent Farsi at home — and often visit family in Persia — they speak English in public.

And part of him worries that all those languages may confuse Aylin, and that she may end up learning to talk later than other children.

But Yu maintains languages are best learned at a young age. “A child can pick up a language as a sponge when they are five, six, seven years old,” he said. “It’s really tough when you’re 22.”

Klocke noted she has German and Croatian friends, who children speak three languages and had no trouble learning English. Her brother’s children, who speak German and Norwegian, are studying in Norway.

Aylin, she said, is already trying to say words like “Pixie”, the name of their guinea pig, and understands the word “nein”, German for no.

But Klocke has a feeling her daughter’s first word will be Persian: “Maybe ‘Baba’, I’m not sure,” she said. “That means ‘daddy’ in Persian.”

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Census: One in three Vancouverites speak languages other than English at home (with video)

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